That Ticking Clock
SUSTAINING THE LEGACY AT MOTOWN TREASURES
In less than three months, Smokey Robinson will be 84. In March, Diana Ross will arrive at 80. Otis Williams became 82 last month. And, of course, just a few days ago, Berry Gordy, Jr. turned 94.
Such longevity is always balanced by loss. This year, Motown’s very first hitmaker, Barrett Strong, died. So did a founder member of the group responsible for the firm’s first crossover Number One hit, Katherine Anderson of the Marvelettes.
A forum for the aficionados
Meanwhile, “My Girl” by the Temptations has now reached 3.5 billion streams on the digital service providers (DSPs) which deliver recorded music to the modern world. Yes, 3.5 billion. That example alone suggests that the work of everyone recruited – and inspired – by Berry Gordy to create and shape Motown Records will be remembered long after they’re gone.
Yet it can be difficult for those who today still publicly admire, celebrate and promote the music. One such is John Fraser, whose Motown Treasures online forum will turn 19 in February. “I honestly don’t know how long I can keep MT going as most times I’m just talking to thin air,” he candidly admitted to followers this past summer in a post entitled “Is Motown Dead?” (on the forum, Fraser is identified as humboldt). He added, “It’s so disheartening that I sometimes feel like closing it down.”
Fraser was equally honest in discussing Motown Treasures just last week. “The classic community is still there,” he told me, “but in much smaller numbers. Like me, they try to keep the Motown flag flying, but it’s very difficult when there seems to be little encouragement from the record industry.” The gradual decline and disappearance of the boomer generation is a primary factor. “Two MT stalwarts dropped off a couple of years ago due to continued ill health,” Fraser says. “Others have faded away.”
It was different when Motown Treasures made its debut in 2005 as a Yahoo! group. “I started MT as a result of Universal Music shutting down the old Motown bulletin board. It was originally a Yahoo! group called The Motown Wee Folk, as I wanted to keep alive the names of all the great unsung Motown artists whose recordings had undersold or had never even been released. After a few months, I changed the name to Motown Treasures to enable conversation about all classic Motown acts. At its peak, there were over 700 members, of which about 50 posted.”
That’s considerably smaller than the membership number claimed for the Soulful Detroit Forum by moderator Ralph Terrana, but that site is broader in content than Motown Treasures. “MT is totally different from SDF both in layout and much of its content,” says Fraser. “MT has a separate forum for each artist that I thought deserved one. On MT, it’s all about the music and not about dresses, wigs, feuds real or imaginary, personal matters, or is one singer better than another.”
That Motown anthology, finally out in 2019
Naturally enough, contributors and readers vary in their opinions. One well-known U.K. member of the Motown community who was banned from Motown Treasures some years ago considers the exclusion to have been “petty.” Another in the U.S. praises Fraser for making MT “much more user friendly” than Soulful Detroit, and for giving it undivided attention. “Changes come extremely slowly on Soulful Detroit, and usually they are the result of animosity between viewers,” says the latter user. “If I have a problem inserting something into an MT posting I want to make, I simply contact John and he handles it.”
There was unity for at least one project. “Years ago,” recalls Fraser, “I started a campaign with the slogan, ‘Free Blinky From The Vaults!’ To my surprise, folks on both MT and SDF rallied to the cry. At one point, a release almost happened, but the record company involved collapsed at the eleventh hour! After that, everyone I talked to said ‘no,’ and that it would never happen. I never gave up and lobbied for a release at every opportunity. In late 2019, I was delighted to get the news that the vault doors had opened and that Blinky was free at last.”
Under license from Universal Music, Blinky’s Heart Full Of Soul: The Motown Anthology was released via Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records, and dedicated to Fraser for his campaigning. “It is my proudest moment and achievement on Motown Treasures,” he says.
Twelve years earlier, an alternate version of a Blinky/Edwin Starr track, “Never Give You Up,” appeared on A Cellarful Of Motown! Volume 3, one of the U.K. series of albums compiled by Paul Nixon. “John is at the sharp end of fandom,” he notes. “I’m very enamoured of his hyper-enthusiasm and what he does with Motown Treasures.”
DIMINISHED AUDIENCES AND APATHY?
If the site doesn’t generate as much activity and feedback as in years past, says Nixon, it’s not alone. “Take a look at all the other boards,” he posted on MT last month. “I’m not sure what is happening, but my guess is that the dreaded time we all predicted is upon us: no new material, diminished audiences due to age and natural events, and a resulting general apathy due to both of those things.”
The present-day absence of Motown reissues or rarities is in stark contrast to when Motown Treasures was launched. “Motown was alive and kicking,” says Fraser. “Releases were coming thick and fast. Hip-O Select/Motown had started up in the U.S., and all the wonderful two-disc anthologies were coming out in the U.K. Tracks that I’d only heard on dubious recordings and bootlegs were now available, crisp and clear. We also had the glorious The Complete Motown Singles series.”
Motown rarities in the Cellar
Fraser is swift to credit Nixon, as well as Universal Music’s Harry Weinger and Andy Skurow, and The Second Disc’s Joe Marchese, for their work on the Motown catalogue. He cites meeting Weinger in New York in 2004, when Hip-O Select was about to be launched, as a highpoint. “I asked him for the Marvelettes and he delivered, just like the postman!” Fraser also praises MT supporter Eric Charge, including the annual get-togethers which Charge organised in London with members. “It was great to meet up and finally be able to put names to faces.”
Sadly, he adds, neither Charge nor Ivor Westacott contribute any longer, due to ill health. “Both have a vast Motown knowledge and were responsible for posting many excellent topics which always drew lurkers to the surface. MT is the poorer for their absence.”
Equally, the decline in Universal Music’s Motown catalogue output deprives Motown Treasures – and Soulful Detroit – of fresh content. “Usually,” Fraser concludes, “new releases were the main topic of the day [as well as] concerts, TV broadcasts, YouTube videos, et cetera. Now, Motown news is becoming rarer and rarer.
“No new product has resulted in apathy. As I keep saying to anyone who will listen, it’s now or never as time is running out for so many of the original ’60s Motown fans. No point in releasing anything after we have gone to higher ground.”
The streaming statistics for “My Girl” may belie that view. “Classic Motown will always appeal to the masses,” accepts Fraser, “as long as it keeps being played in clubs. The trouble is that the younger crowd may not know that it’s Motown they are dancing to!”